{"title":"Bottlebrush","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe cold-hardy bottlebrushes we grow in Aiken, led by \u003cem\u003eCallistemon\u003c\/em\u003e 'Woodlander's Hardy', our own introduction and now the standard cold-hardy red bottlebrush of the American trade. Brushes of stamens in red, pink, and green-gold on sun-loving, drought-tolerant evergreens that draw hummingbirds and take a Carolina frost.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"callistemon-salignus","title":"Callistemon salignus","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eCallistemon salignus\u003c\/em\u003e, the willow bottlebrush, is the graceful one, a large shrub or small tree hung with narrow, willow-like leaves and lit each spring by silky new growth of bright pink to copper, the plant's finest moment. The brushes that follow are soft and pale, creamy white to lemon, sometimes flushed pink in selected forms, and the trunk carries a beautiful papery white bark that peels away in thin sheets. Few bottlebrush read as elegant; the willow bottlebrush does.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNative to the moist forests and stream banks of eastern Australia, the willow bottlebrush is one of the hardier and more tree-like species, in time making a small, softly weeping specimen for a lawn or a wide border. One honest caution comes with the beauty: the foliage yellows readily where nutrients run short, so a plant in poor or alkaline ground wants feeding to hold the rich green. Nectar-rich and much visited by pollinators in flower.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057821487219,"sku":"CALL-SALI-01G","price":19.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}]},{"product_id":"callistemon-rigidus-clemson","title":"Callistemon rigidus 'Clemson'","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn exceptional cold-hardy bottlebrush, \u003cem\u003eCallistemon rigidus\u003c\/em\u003e 'Clemson' is a compact to medium evergreen shrub hung with brilliant red, brush-like flowers that bloom heavily in late spring and often rebloom through summer. Native to Australia, this selection defies expectations for the genus by thriving outdoors in upstate South Carolina, where winters are usually too cold for bottlebrushes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe cultivar was introduced by Ted Stephens of Nurseries Caroliniana, who noticed the plant's resilience and long bloom in Clemson, South Carolina. The bright red, nectar-rich flowers draw bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds, and the dense, fine-textured foliage gives structure to sunny borders, foundation plantings, and large containers in milder climates.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith a proven track record in Southeastern gardens, 'Clemson' brings a touch of the exotic to temperate landscapes without giving up durability.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057821552755,"sku":"CALL-RIGI-CLEM-01G","price":31.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/Callistemon_Clemson_Woodlanders-3.jpg?v=1750633928"},{"product_id":"callistemon-sp-woodlanders-hardy","title":"Callistemon 'Woodlander's Hardy'","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis is a Woodlanders plant in the most literal sense: selected, named, and introduced to the American nursery trade by this nursery, in this town, decades ago. The cultivar now carries our name across the country. One Green World in Oregon, Cistus on Sauvie Island, Greenleaf as a national wholesaler, Wilson Bros in three-gallon, Cloud Mountain Farm in Washington, Dancing Oaks in the Willamette Valley, and dozens of regional nurseries from Louisiana to Idaho all carry the plant. Few cultivars in American horticulture are so permanently tied to a single small nursery in Aiken, South Carolina. To buy here is to buy at the source.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe story is one of those small, persistent acts of selection that quietly change what a region can grow. \u003cem\u003eCallistemon\u003c\/em\u003e, the bottlebrush, is an Australian genus of around fifty species, traditionally grown in the United States only in zone 9 and warmer: a pretty plant with brilliant red stamen-flowers, but tender. Woodlanders identified a clone with the cold tolerance to push the genus a full hardiness zone north, reliably evergreen at 5°F, the parent plant having survived a North Carolina winter that bottomed out at minus nine. The result is the cold-hardiest red bottlebrush in the American trade, a plant that was supposed to belong to Florida and southern California and now belongs, just as comfortably, to the upper South, the Mid-Atlantic, and the Pacific Northwest.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA note on the name. The plant was first distributed as \u003cem\u003eCallistemon sieberi\u003c\/em\u003e, but true \u003cem\u003eC. sieberi\u003c\/em\u003e has yellow flowers and ours is unmistakably red, so that attribution was wrong. Decades of detective work have not pinned down the exact parent species (some point to \u003cem\u003eC. rigidus\u003c\/em\u003e or \u003cem\u003eC. subulatus\u003c\/em\u003e), and the plant is most accurately written today as \u003cem\u003eCallistemon\u003c\/em\u003e sp. 'Woodlander's Hardy', or, under the recent taxonomic merger, \u003cem\u003eMelaleuca viminalis\u003c\/em\u003e 'Woodlander's Hardy'. We carry the original name forward because the cultivar selection, the actual plant, is the point, not the species lineage.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the garden, 'Woodlander's Hardy' forms a graceful, somewhat weeping shrub, eventually four to six feet tall and as wide, the arching branches lined with narrow, soft, lance-shaped evergreen leaves that take on coppery and russet tones through the cold months. The genus name, from the Greek kalli, beautiful, and stemon, stamen, beautiful stamens, makes immediate sense in bloom: the flowers are essentially all stamens, each four-inch cylindrical brush composed of hundreds of long red filaments tipped with golden anthers, the true petals tiny and lost behind the show. Peak bloom comes in late spring, with sporadic rebloom through summer and into fall on new wood, so a light pruning after the main flush meaningfully extends the season. Hummingbirds find the flowers within hours of the first opening; bees, butterflies, and beneficial wasps work them heavily.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDrought tolerant once established, and heat tolerant, and humidity tolerant, and forgiving of poor lean soil, salt spray, and urban grit, the bottlebrush shrugs off most of what defeats fussier shrubs. Deer largely pass the foliage by, which carries the soft lemony scent of the myrtle family when crushed.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor the zone 7 gardener who always wanted a bottlebrush and was told it could not be done, the hummingbird gardener after a long-blooming evergreen anchor, the Lowcountry gardener building a heat-and-humidity-proof border, or the collector who wants the plant that put Woodlanders into the American nursery trade.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057821618291,"sku":"CALL-WOOD-HARD-01G","price":38.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/344A14D8-C71E-4467-B8EA-071247937D72.jpg?v=1746713471"},{"product_id":"callistemon-citrinus","title":"Callistemon citrinus","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eCallistemon citrinus\u003c\/em\u003e, the crimson bottlebrush, is the plant most people picture when they hear the common name, and the parent of a good share of the red-flowered selections in the trade. The lance-shaped leaves emerge coppery and pink, harden to a soft gray-green, and give up a clean lemon scent when bruised, the trait the species epithet records. Bright crimson brushes, four inches or so, come in a heavy flush in late spring and then intermittently through the warm months, each one a generous well of nectar for hummingbirds and bees.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA coastal eastern Australian shrub in the myrtle family, the crimson bottlebrush is among the more forgiving members of the genus, taking sun, wind, and lean soil in stride once established. Cold is the limit, as with most bottlebrush: expect reliable performance in zone 9 and the milder edges of zone 8, with the foliage flushing mauve to purple in a cool winter. Woodlanders grew this species as a benchmark of the genus and a foil to the hardier selections we introduced.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057821651059,"sku":"CALL-CITR-01G","price":19.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}]},{"product_id":"callistemon-macropunctatus","title":"Callistemon macropunctatus","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eCallistemon macropunctatus\u003c\/em\u003e, the scarlet bottlebrush, is a plant of the drier inland country of southeastern Australia, and the toughness shows. The narrow, sharply pointed leaves are studded with large oil glands, the big dots the species epithet names, and release a sharp, resinous scent when crushed. Flowering runs from olive-green in bud to a deep scarlet as the brushes open across late spring and summer, vivid against the stiff foliage.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBuilt for heat, drought, and lean or limy soil, the scarlet bottlebrush is one of the more adaptable species for a hot, difficult site, making a dense shrub of three to twelve feet. Woodlanders grew this species as part of a working collection of the genus, testing the range of bottlebrush that might take a Southern summer.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057821683827,"sku":"CALL-MACR-01G","price":19.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}]},{"product_id":"callistemon-paludosus-hybrid","title":"Callistemon paludosus (hybrid?)","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn evergreen bottlebrush with arching to pendulous branches and dark green, lance-shaped leaves, \u003cem\u003eCallistemon paludosus\u003c\/em\u003e carries terminal, pink bottlebrush spikes freely in midsummer, an unusual color in a genus mostly given to red. Relatively cold-hardy for a bottlebrush, this is a graceful, easy shrub for a hot, sunny spot.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe pink flowers raise a question: in the wild the straight Callistemon paludosus is described as yellow-flowered, so this plant may be a hybrid with one of the red-flowered species. The trail behind this plant is a long one, reaching Woodlanders from Joe Levert of Augusta, Georgia, by way of Tom McClendon before him and, most likely, Yucca-Do Nursery in Texas before that, which raised the original from seed sent by the University of California, Santa Cruz. A long journey for a fine plant for the sunny garden.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eUse the pink bottlebrush in a sunny border, a hot bank, or a coastal planting, where the arching branches and pink brushes draw hummingbirds and bees through the heat of summer. Drought tolerant once established, and a distinctive pink note among the usual reds. Four to six feet, evergreen, for zones 8 to 10.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057821814899,"sku":"CALL-PALU-HYBR-01G","price":24.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/DETA-1883.jpg?v=1720136837"},{"product_id":"callistemon-viridiflorus","title":"Callistemon viridiflorus","description":"\u003cp\u003eAmong the many bottlebrushes, most of which flower fire-engine red, \u003cem\u003eCallistemon viridiflorus\u003c\/em\u003e goes a different way, opening in greenish yellow brushes over short, prickly evergreen leaves. Native to Tasmania, this is one of the cold-hardier members of the genus and may hold to zone 7.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlowering comes in early summer. Plant this green bottlebrush in full sun with reasonably good, well-drained soil. Older specimens develop a handsome white, corky bark, and the foliage is said to be left alone by deer.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057821880435,"sku":"CALL-VIRI-01G","price":24.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/DETA-1127.jpg?v=1720136840"},{"product_id":"callistemon-pinifolius","title":"Callistemon pinifolius","description":"\u003cp\u003ePine-leaved bottlebrush earns the name honestly: the foliage is fine, stiff, and needle-like, closer to a young pine than to the broad leaves of most bottlebrushes, and the whole shrub stands upright and a little spare, which is part of the charm. Native to southeastern Australia, this species is uncommon in cultivation in the southern United States, so growing one is a small act of plant collecting.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe flowers are the surprise. Where most Callistemons blaze red, \u003cem\u003eCallistemon pinifolius\u003c\/em\u003e usually opens in a soft greenish yellow, with the occasional plant throwing true red instead, a quiet and slightly otherworldly version of the classic bottlebrush. Bees and hummingbirds find the brushes readily, and the plant shrugs off drought once established while resisting the sawfly larvae that trouble broader-leaved kin.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGive this bottlebrush a sunny or lightly shaded spot with soil that drains freely but holds some moisture. A note on names: we obtained this plant as \u003cem\u003eCallistemon viridiflorus\u003c\/em\u003e, another green-flowered species, and some botanists would file the whole group under \u003cem\u003eMelaleuca\u003c\/em\u003e rather than \u003cem\u003eCallistemon\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePictures courtesy of Australian Plants Society NSW.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057821913203,"sku":"CALL-PINI-01G","price":24.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/Callistemon-pinifolius-2.jpg?v=1720561800"},{"product_id":"callistemon-brachyandrus","title":"Callistemon brachyandrus","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eCallistemon brachyandrus\u003c\/em\u003e, the prickly or desert bottlebrush, comes from the arid inland of New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia, and wears that origin in every part. The short, stiff, needle-fine leaves end in a sharp point and give the shrub the prickly common name, a fine gray-green texture quite unlike the broad-leaved bottlebrushes. The brushes are the real surprise: deep red stamens tipped with yellow anthers, so each flower looks dusted with gold, and they open in summer, after most other bottlebrush have finished.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAn easily grown and floriferous species in the dry country of the homeland, the prickly bottlebrush adapts to a wide range of soils and asks mainly for sun and sharp drainage. The desert bottlebrush stays less familiar to American gardeners, particularly in the humid Southeast, where bottlebrush in general are seldom grown outdoors much above zone 8. Woodlanders offered this species as one of the more distinctive and drought-hardy members of a genus worth knowing.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057821945971,"sku":"CALL-BRAC-01G","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}]}],"url":"https:\/\/woodlanders.net\/collections\/bottlebrush.oembed","provider":"Woodlanders","version":"1.0","type":"link"}